What a busy first weekend in Thailand! On Friday night the company that owns and manages our apartment complex held a " Your Dreamland 2010 Party" for all their "foreign" guests. It was basically a photo op for them so they can sell condos and apartments using our shiny white faces... However, said photo op came with free food, booze and traditional Thai dancers... and the traditional Thai pastime of Karaoke.
Although cheesy and slightly strange (as is everything about where we live... more on that another time) this provided an excellent opportunity for us to get to know some of the other local farang. The Dreamland party finished at ten and we all took the party elsewhere... to the sidewalk by the 7-11 to be exact!
Yes, not only can you buy beer at the 7-11 in Thailand, but the clerks actually have bottle openers behind the counter, just in case you want to drink while you browse the fine selection of merchandise. They obligingly opened our beverage and we went outside to the sidewalk where we hung around with a crowd of folks before deciding what to do. We ended up going to sit on some benches outside by the Arc de Triomphe where Hannah got eaten alive by mosquitoes (and Shane got ZERO bites) before deciding to head to "The Clink" a local bar. The bar was a bit of a bust but the night overall was a great success as we met some new friends and got a chance to check out the local area.
The next morning we met up with our new friends to head down to the Chatuchak weekend market. This is the biggest market in Thailand with between 5000-15000 vendors (depending on your Internet research lol) and where around 30 million baht per day are spent on cheap knockoff goods (say hello to my new fake Lacoste wallet), pets, appliances, electronics.... basically anything you could ever want can be found at the Chatuchak weekend market. It is a wildly crowded place full of locals, tourists, and the occasional palm reader wearing all black with a sword strapped across his back. We spent several hours shopping and being generally overwhelmed by everything and came out with a small number of purchases.
After a quick bite to eat we started to head out but were waylaid by the sweet melodious sounds of a Thai guitar player singing various English alternative covers. We sat down and had a couple beers while listening before heading home.
And as for Shane almost killing a guy, have we mentioned the madness that is Thai motorcyclists? Let's just say, next time you see a movie with a wild motorcycle stunt in it, the stuntman is probably somebody's Thai grandma out for a Sunday drive... These guys have no concept of rules or regulations on the road, a fact which Shane learned when he almost killed a motorcyclist opening the door of our cab. Trying to exit the cab (on the curb side I might add) Shane had barely cracked the door when it was hit at full speed by a flying Thai motorcyclist who then performed a stylish quick dismount from his bike before getting up, shaking his wrist and glaring at Shane, and then continuing on his way... just another day on the outskirts of Bangkok. Needless to say, we have now learned to LOOK BEHIND before opening any door of the vehicle. Just because you are on the sidewalk, doesn't mean you're safe.
